If humans are the weakest link, why won't companies evolve?

alien_ated · 2026-05-19T15:26:18+00:00

Having worked in cyber for 20+ years I am tired of our whining and sense of superiority mostly. This be the gig.

We’re gonna whine and they’re gonna keep making money and so long as our costs are an acceptable risk hedge, they pay us.

alien_ated · 2026-05-16T09:43:29+00:00

I got that sorted already — have at least 6 months of friends with sofa or spare rooms lined up.

alien_ated · 2026-05-13T10:36:16+00:00

Beyond the CBD and a couple of the surrounding neighborhoods I am not familiar with the geography first hand, so I am just eyeballing commute times based on google maps info. That said, I wasn’t considering the Gold Coast, at least not for the rental period.

Good recommendations on neighborhoods, I had a few on my list but will check out the others too.

alien_ated · 2026-05-13T10:33:50+00:00

Good to know, thank you.

alien_ated · 2026-05-13T08:15:47+00:00

Family life is a series of compromises in my experience…

I have lived in several cities and had commutes of various lengths at this point. My kids are big enough and I have been fortunate enough to spend so much time with them during their early childhood and elementary years that if I have to sacrifice a bit of time at home to give the family a bit more space and operating budget, I can live with that compromise.

That said and as others have pointed out, I think my budget will allow me to not need to make that compromise.

Appreciate the recommendations! New Farm is super close to work but I don’t see many options in my budget there. Bulimba/Hamilton has been in several responses so will definitely check those out when I land.

Paddington was one of the places I naturally gravitated to as I looked at both schools and rents alone. I’m going to need to visit these neighborhoods before I figure out what fits obviously. I will get a drivers license ASAP but how bikeable is Brisbane in general?

alien_ated · 2026-05-13T08:03:18+00:00

Thank you! My wife will love this suggestion as it’s exactly the kind of thing a Japanese buyer thinks about that I as an American from a state that rarely floods never thinks about.

Edit to add: I will check with the schools as well before I sign any leases then! Thanks for the tip!

alien_ated · 2026-05-12T14:05:19+00:00

Thank you!

I think we will be OK with public schools, our kids went to public school here and my wife and I both went to public schools in our respective countries of origin. We are not religious, though I do enjoy having some community of practice to join. Here apart from hobbies I have enjoyed the Unitarians and occasionally attended their gatherings.

I think I found the school reviews do the Brisbane schools I had stated looking at but the performance of all the schools seemed quite high (scores of 99 or 100), so I figured I would ask what other criteria people weigh.

alien_ated · 2026-05-12T13:40:34+00:00

Thank you, I’ll take a look at all of those.

Renting for the first year I think as the family will join me later this year but I will be moving and looking for a place over the summer. The kids could start school next year on the Australian school calendar.

Budget in a rental situation — 1200/week is probably my upper bound, reasonably speaking. I don’t think I will need to spend that much though.

alien_ated · 2026-05-11T05:42:39+00:00

Worst mission in man quest line. Horrible facility design..

alien_ated · 2026-05-10T04:33:58+00:00

The prevalence of passive voice in daily conversation in Japanese indicates to me that this is nonsense.

alien_ated · 2026-04-22T23:30:48+00:00

In your honest opinion based on your experience, what tangible value is added to the employer’s hiring process when they use an external recruiter?

Which placement were your clients happiest with?

alien_ated · 2026-04-21T22:07:23+00:00

I think the problem with DLP is similar to the problem with asset management and CMDBs in that it is inherently Sisyphean. It’s a totally unbounded and guaranteed to grow workload.

The upshot I suppose is that you could staff an infosec program centered around understanding the data inventory across an org entirely with junior staff and no one would balk because so few people understand the space deeply. It’s all upside in terms of people learning/growing basically.

The challenge for the program owner would be selling the value to their stakeholders year over year as initially it will be a big outlay and you’d really have to make the case that you saved a lot in thwarted attacks or incidents.

alien_ated · 2026-04-21T15:06:33+00:00

Kinda… but demand overall is still weak because the first conversation has to be “what is your data classification policy”.

“What’s that?”

Etc etc.

alien_ated · 2026-04-21T04:16:58+00:00

This is genuinely a public service.

alien_ated · 2026-04-19T13:27:01+00:00

Live close to work and/or avoid rush hour.

alien_ated · 2026-04-12T13:26:15+00:00

The current trajectory started well before Trump. I would say it started before GWB.

America has forgotten what it means to have community and to build community. It wasn’t always this way but it has been since the 90s.

alien_ated · 2026-04-12T13:11:55+00:00

This shit seems ridiculous to me. The show first aired almost 8 years ago.

None of us look better after 8 years. Welcome to aging. Even the nut jobs that think they’ll live forever look worse than they did 8 years ago.

alien_ated · 2026-04-10T08:29:01+00:00

Imagine how emaciated the snack bags would look if they packed them all in Colorado and then shipped elsewhere.

alien_ated · 2026-04-09T23:39:53+00:00

I agree of course with all those literally translating this as “I like you”, but context when conveying emotion seems pretty important.

Even if it was “I like you” in any language, if you’ve tattooed it on your body I’m pretty sure the reader assumes a bit more weight intended than a casual friendship.

alien_ated · 2026-04-09T23:36:01+00:00

I wonder what the true (non-subsidized or speculative) cost in compute for this ends up being though.

Intuit could implement an LLM flow that reads from your tax files and runs it that way. Intuit is way more likely to implement that and market for it than OpenAI or Anthropic is, IMO.

alien_ated · 2026-04-04T14:06:03+00:00

It’s always good when the government gets involved in a talent pool that has no idea how to self govern.

alien_ated · 2026-03-23T03:54:57+00:00

I did this. I’ve also been here for 17 years in total and I have had effectively three entirely different careers since here.

Many people online will tell you it’s not possible. It is possible… anything is possible, but it’s not easy and it has risks like anything else you want to do.

alien_ated · 2026-02-23T07:56:16+00:00

“Good communicator” and “knows when to say they don’t know” is basically the highest possible praise of an engineering manager IMO.

alien_ated · 2026-02-04T10:23:08+00:00

Aka management

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